Glorious Mud

This headline came across Twitter today from The Onion: Child Slavery Gives Area Activist Something To Do With Her Evenings It made me laugh and grimace at the same time.  I guess that is the point of The Onion's sarcastic pseudo-journalism.  It makes us laugh at ourselves and wince at the same time. So - let's put this on the table.  Some people (myself included) have at times used other people's suffering as a way to add meaning to our boring lives.  Activism can be a wonderful distraction from our meaningless and painfully boring lives.  Who hasn't felt the siren call - You can be important!  You can make a difference!  You can win friends and influence people! Of course it doesn't have to be child slavery - though that is obviously a hot topic these days.  It could be anything we think is important, something that can bring positive social change: abortion, christian education, urban renewal, urban education, renewable energy, AIDS or de...

I have been reading through Ezekiel this month. And just for the record - this is one crazy book. Man, Ezekiel had one rough gig. I am tempted to complain when I run a 12 hour day of meetings. You know, rough stuff - St. Louis Bread Co. can get seriously old. Ezekiel, on the other hand, had to act out all these crazy judgments from God before they happened. He was God's living parable. He had to sit in a public square and build miniature cities out of bricks and then destroy them. He had to lay on his side in public for 390 days and then roll over and lay on the other side for 40 more days. He had to cook his food over human feces - well, until God recanted and allowed him to cook it over cow poop. And that is just the start. Ezekiel had it rough. But he was God's man. He loved God and he loved God's people and he was willing to suffer so that God's grace could come and bring repentance and restoration to people near to God in religious behavior but far from God i...